The Road to Creating MVPs–Most Valuable Partners

What does it take to become a Philadelphia Eagle? Shaun Huls, Director of Sports Science and Reconditioning, took us on the journey of how he not only partners with players to make them more powerful in the game, but the impact that investing holistically in each person has had on their team. By pairing personalized performance technology with the drive of each player, the Eagles have seen impactful results.

Shaun surrounds Eagles players with a group of professionals that use technologies, such as 3D motion capture, to assure that each of them is trained adequately to their own level so that they can begin making changes incrementally. More recently, they’ve been able to identify bandwidth of performance through integrated sensors in athletic apparel and equipment – essentially enhancing the function of wearables in analyzing performance. Evidently, as Sean said, “Technology is becoming the 12th player on the football field.”

From this experience, Shaun identified three elements that make a good partner:

Customer service: The ability to understand the needs of your partner and build the relationship fluidly.

Problem solving: Shaun explained that him and his team are by no means researchers in pro sports, but accredits their success to their dedication to problem solving. They begin by identifying the problem and finding ways to improve efficiency in order to free up time for players to focus on advancing their skill set. If the problem is more complicated than that, they know to look outside of themselves and employ expertise from other companies to help them reach their goal.

Clear communication and feedback: Shaun noted that when the performance data was communicated in a consumable way to the players, it led to higher performance results. With well-defined algorithms and milestones that both the staff and players understood, players knew where to focus their energies in improving their skills.

Alignment on specific goals through a collaborative plan, finding ways to work through problems and open lines of communication have proven to be the secret to the success of the partnership between Shaun and the players of the Philadelphia Eagles. Moreover, this personalized method of data collection to train each player individually not only helps the team produce better athletes, but helps to build a greater culture within the organization for the future.